Why did Prometheus 2 get cancelled?

Good question. Either Scott and company bowed to studio pressure to just make another Alien movie OR the fan backlash against Prometheus (which was rather hysterical imo) quelled any enthusiasm about a followup.

It didn't get cancelled. Covenant IS Prometheus 2.

What essentially happened was that the original plan was or part 2 to focus on Shaw going to the Engineer planet.


But Prometheus was met with a poor reaction from many fans, with one main complaint being that it really didn't seem much like an "Alien prequel". Scott had started out calling it a prequel to Alien, but then backed away from that and said it was in the "Alien universe" but really nothing much to do with the original movie.

When it came out and had virtually nothing to do with Alien at all, a lot of fans complained. The movie didn't do too well at the box officer, either, so the studio balked at making Prometheus 2. In the end they told Scott that he could make his Prometheus 2, but on condition that it be more less like Prometheus and more like an Alien movie.

So Scott lopped out most of what he'd wanted to do with the engineers, disposing of Shaw in flashback. He kept David and covered his "Xenomorph origin" stuff with him... then stuck 30 minutes worth of Xenomorph into the last act.

As is often the case with directors who compromise what they want to do hugely for the studio, the result came out neither one thing nor the other. Prometheus fans are all like "Well this isn't much of a sequel..." whilst Alien fans (like me) are all like "Whoa, why is there still all this Prometheus stuff in there?!"

Oh well. There probably won't be another movie.

I feel like it shouldnt be hard to understand that Alien Covenant is the sequel to Prometheus.

Well said! Idiot, obsessed fanboy pressure and greedy studios caused Scott to re-evaluate and compromise himself. What we got was Covenant, and I went in with average expectations, and what I got was average. A big disappoint after Prometheus, which while flawed, these were minor compared to the latest offering and Covenant makes Prometheus look even better. There was also a 5yr gap between them and that was too long to wait. Even those that had seen Prometheus perhaps only once, may not have remembered much of it.

I think there is another one on the way though. Wasn't Scott filming back to back? 

don't fret.

everything is going to get tied together very nicely in Avp3